Suit Filed Over Massachusetts Sodomy Law

Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders has filed a lawsuit challenging the
Massachusetts sodomy law, The Boston Globe reports. The suit asks the states supreme
judicial court to declare the law a violation of right-to-privacy protections. "There
have been very significant efforts made to try to address this issue through the
legislature, and they have all simply hit dead ends," Jennifer Levi, an attorney for
GLAD, told the paper. "The statute is so clearly in violation of the privacy and
dignity guaranteed to all citizens of the Commonwealth that it calls out for judicial
redress." Massachusetts is one of 17 states that criminalizes sodomy and is the only
state in the Northeast to still do so. Massachusettss sodomy law applies to
heterosexuals as well as gays and lesbians.